Grids

Following news yesterday of the first grid-scale solar-plus-storage system on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, two more modestly-sized projects show the potential diversity of applications for energy storage in the US state.

Hawaii has been a prolific installer of both rooftop solar and latterly batteries for energy storage and one of the US state’s smaller islands looks set to get its first ever grid-scale solar-plus-storage system.

A company owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has joined a Caribbean-wide effort to improve the resilience of clean energy projects by acquiring a 4MW solar plant that was damaged by Hurricane Maria.

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) is supporting a 41MW hybrid solar-wind-storage project being developed by private Indian energy firm IL&FS Energy Development Company Limited (IEDCL) in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh by providing a grant to aid the plant’s technical design and planning.

Homeowners in Ireland can now access grants worth hundreds of euros to fund the installation of solar and energy storage systems as the government launches its first micro-generation scheme for the technology.

The Indian Finance Ministry’s order imposing a safeguard duty for two years on solar imports from developed countries as well as China and Malaysia has brought long-awaited clarity to both manufacturers and developers, but both segments of the industry have a number of fears.

Partly to serve a major new industrial park, Japanese utility and grid operator Tohoku Electric Power will buy the power generation from a newly completed 28MW solar farm in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, Kyocera Corporation has announced.

Hyderabad-headquartered firm Greenko Energies has received state government approval for a huge renewable energy project involving 1GW of solar, 550MW of wind and 1.2GW of pumped energy storage in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

A number of international initiatives have helped large-scale solar gain a foothold in Africa. The question now is how the market for this segment will develop beyond these programmes and how much capacity grids will be able to support.

Tariffs in a 1GW solar auction in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh have hit INR3.48-3.55/kWh (US$0.051-0.052), which is significantly higher than bids in other recent Indian auctions for a range of reasons, including a history of PPA renegotiations.

Europe’s installed base of electrical energy storage leaped by almost 50% during 2017 but perhaps the bigger takeaway is the growing share of battery systems installed behind-the-meter, an analyst has said

Australia’s energy and environment minister has hailed the country’s accelerating residential energy storage sales as a report has emerged from Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel which says the “financial equation is straightforward” for adding batteries to home PV systems.

Indian solar tariffs have matched their lowest ever in the most recent 2GW auction from Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), hitting INR2.44/kWh (US$0.036) for the first time since May 2017, and with much of the capacity expected to be set up in Rajasthan.